France 2009 - Day trip, Mont Saint Michel

Got up at 5:30AM, neither one of us wanted to get up but we had to be downstairs by 6:30AM. The pickup van was late, it arrived at 6:40. The girl driver was running late because she was having a hard time finding hotels. She let Tracy and I sit up front. She had a hard time finding the last pick up which was near the tour bus. We got there at 7:10. It was a two level bus. Tracy and I end up staying on the lower level and everyone else went upstairs except the tour guides. It was as if we were on a private tour, very cool! The area we sat in was setup for four people with a table in the middle. Therefore, we had plenty of room for storage and the table for other things. Our bus was full of Asians, actually, there were two buses, and the other one was for Japanese only. It took 4.5 hours to reach our destination including a 30-minute rest stop two hours into the trip. Before we went to Mont Saint Michel, we had lunch at a hotel (Relais Saint Michel Hotel) a mile from the island. The starter was a local favorite omelet, the main course was fish which I skipped then cheese cake for desert. They severed a locally brewed apple cider that was very good. We made it to our destination. We walked up the side steps, not sure how many stories high we walked but it was a lot. The tour started at the top, I was a renegade and jumped ahead, and took some great shots from the open-air deck that use to be part of the church which was destroyed many years in the past. After a while, we got sick of the slow pace our guide was going so we left the group and went forward at our own speed. This worked out great because it gave us plenty of time at the end to sit down at a café and have a beer and a sweet crepe. Tracy had tea and a crepe. We also had time to shop at the souvenir shops. We headed back to Paris at the same schedule, 4.5 hours with a 30-minute stop. We were dropped off at the hotel and went to the Pizza Hut near the hotel for dinner. We tried to sit at a table for four but were kicked out and placed at a table for two. It’s the Paris way. Back at the hotel.